A couple of charging questions…

Discussion in 'Gen 5 Prius Technical Discussion' started by iRun26.2, Jul 3, 2025 at 5:03 PM.

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  1. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    1) I accidentally fully charged my 2025 Prius last night without a reason to go anywhere today - I drove it around anyway today because I thought it wouldn’t be good for it to be sitting, for days, fully charged. Is that correct?

    2) I now have a Level-2 charger installed at my home. Is it better on the battery to use Level-1 charging when possible?

    Thanks!
     
    #1 iRun26.2, Jul 3, 2025 at 5:03 PM
  2. schja01

    schja01 Senior Member

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    Remember your fully charged battery is in fact only 80% charged.
     
    #2 schja01, Jul 3, 2025 at 7:14 PM
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it's okay to leave it full and level one won't be any better for it than level two
     
    #3 bisco, Jul 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM
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  4. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    I’m sorry. I guess I’m just worrying about things that the manufacturer has already taken care of for us.
     
    #4 iRun26.2, Jul 3, 2025 at 8:43 PM
  5. KMO

    KMO Senior Member

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    Over the vehicle's whole life, it is worth leaving it full less.

    One of the reasons for the existence of the charging schedule, which saves you always charging immediately. Can save hours of full time every day, which will add up.

    But on a small scale, having it "full" for day due to a change of plans is not a big deal. Because it's not really full.

    And even the fastest charge the car is capable of is so far away from the sort of "fast" charge that has a significant effect on battery life, that you shouldn't worry about it.
     
    #5 KMO, Jul 4, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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  6. Paul Gregory

    Paul Gregory Senior Member

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    "80%" is a matter of opinion. For many types of lithium cells, 4.2V is considered full, however, some phones charge to 4.5 volts, which drastically reduces the battery's longevity.
    The Prius engineers designed a lower battery charging level to preserve battery pack longevity. I got 12 years out of my gen 3 lithium battery pack, and only lost about 15% capacity. My Samsung phone however, only lasted a bit longer than a year, charging to 4.4V at full charge.
     
    #6 Paul Gregory, Jul 4, 2025 at 3:29 AM
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  7. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    I never replaced the battery of my 2012 plug-in Prius battery. When I hit the deer that totaled it the (reason I now have a brand new 2025 model) I think it only got about 9 miles per charge. Thats about 1/2 the capacity that the battery provided when it was new. I was pretty good about not letting it sit with a full charge. However, I would almost always drain the battery to the system’s lowest point where it had as little battery left as possible. If you were driving slow and didn’t accelerate to strongly the battery could last up an additional mile (3-squares left) before the gas engine kicked on. I believe that was probably hard on the battery (leaving
    in this state every time) as it is not good to leave the battery too low.
     
    #7 iRun26.2, Jul 4, 2025 at 6:22 AM
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